Talks underway for Malaysian carriers to gain access to more routes in China

Malaysian Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai announced that talks are ongoing for Malaysian airlines to possibly fly to more routes in China.

The Transport Minister also disclosed that Malaysia Airlines (MAB) is targeting second-tier cities by flying to Wuhan in the central, Nanjing in the east and the southern city Fuzhou.

“The second-tier cities of China are developing very fast, it is vital to expand and open up new markets,” he said.

Liow added that budget airline, Air Asia, also has plans to increase its flight frequency to Xian from four times a week to daily.

“We hope to continue to expand our presence in China and we are getting a lot of support for MAB, Air Asia and Malindo to fly to China,” Liow said.

Liow forwarded the said requests to Feng Zhengling, Administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), during a recent meeting.

Liow was in Beijing for the inaugural Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation. The event was attended by over 300 participants, which included transport ministers from more than 30 countries.

Before closing, the conference agreed to a ministerial declaration – the Beijing Declaration – on aviation safety, air navigation services, accident investigation and human resources development.

Liow also encouraged the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to give the go-ahead for the technical cooperation fund for human resources development to countries in the Asia Pacific region.

Liow also reported that Malaysia had signed agreements with the civil aviation commissions in Europe, Africa, Latin America, Saudi Arabia and the Caribbean states to bolster and develop their mutual cooperation in training aviation personnel.